4E Alternate Treasure System

What follows is essentially my thinking out loud in the process of developing/refining my alternate treasure system for 4E. As such, it may be disjointed, messy, or both.

I'm not a fan of treasure parcels, the default treasure distribution method in 4E. I like the concept in and of itself, but it doesn't work if you don't keep everyone in the party at the same level (which is also the suggested default for 4E, but not something I care for, either) nor if the number of characters in the party fluctuates. So I've been thinking of an alternate system. I do prefer the "old" standard, which we've had in various forms from 1st Edition to 3.5, for the most part, except for the weirdness that occasionally results from the random tables. But the idea of "shifting" treasure around from opponents that wouldn't have much (or anything) to different parts of an adventure (like a treasure vault or dragon's lair) is a good idea, and essentially part of the 4E system, not to mention something I used to do myself.

So what's the solution? My idea is sort of a mix of the two, 4E and old. Essentially it still uses parcels, but for adventures, not for party levels. The plan is to come up with a "treasure budget" (similar to the budgets you have for encounter building), which is based on the monsters and traps in the adventure, and then distribute it within the adventure as appropriate.

The design is based on the following premises:

• A character will advance a level every 10 encounters.
• A character should gain a equal portion (based on the party size, 1/5 is the standard) of the total monetary value of a treasure parcel for a given level.
• One encounter should yield 1/10th of the treasure of a given treasure parcel.

Looking at the XP values for monsters, we can see that by reducing numbers to the level of the individual PC, a single PC can defeat 10 creatures of their level to advance one level. Since each of those "encounters" would yield 1/10th the value of a treasure parcel for that PC, each monster would provide 1/50 of the total treasure parcel's monetary worth (1/10th of the entire parcel, and 1/5 of that for the individual PC). Based on this, a level 1 monster would be responsible for 75.2 gp of treasure, while a level 10 monster would provide 1400 gp. (Note: "Monster" could be a monster, NPC, skill challenge, trap, or anything that provides XP). Note that "provide" and "be responsible" doesn't necessarily mean that the monsters would have that treasure on them. They might have that amount or less, or more (or even none). What it does mean is that within the context of the adventure that monster provides that amount of value to the "treasure budget".

Naturally, this system doesn't insure that the PCs will get all the treasure from a module, just as there's no assurance that they'll engage in every encounter. It's not perfect, but it's "close enough" in my estimation, which is fine for me. Also, I'm using the 1/5th as a standard (i.e.; a PC should get 1/5 of a parcel's value), even though the numbers don't work out the same if you don't have 5 PCs in the party (the proportions go up if you have 3 or 4 PCs, they go down if you have 6 or 7). But again, they're close enough that I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Based on all of that, we end up with the following:

1: 75 11: 1900 21: 47000
2: 100 12: 2700 22: 67000
3: 150 13: 3800 23: 95000
4: 200 14: 5250 24: 131000
5: 300 15: 7000 25: 175000
6: 375 16: 9400 26: 235000
7: 525 17: 13400 27: 285000
8: 750 18: 19000 28: 325000
9: 1050 19: 26200 29: 355000
10: 1400 20: 35000 30: 437500

Note that these numbers are for "standard" monsters. In accordance with their XP values, minions would provide 1/4th the amount to the budget, elites twice that amount, and solos five times the amount.

The next step is to go through the adventure you're planning for, and total up the treasure values for all of its monsters, traps, etc. based on the table above. The end total is the "treasure budget" for the adventure. Based on this, you can look through the PH, Adventurer's Vault, and whatever other sources you're using to put together the adventure's treasure. Where the treasure goes is up to you. Some may be on the monsters themselves, some may be hidden in secret caches, etc. What the treasure is is also up to you; I have some plans for a random generator, though in practice I figure I'll do a combination of random generation and manual selection.

Again, not a perfect system. But one that on "paper" seems good enough. Once I implement, we'll see how well it works.